As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some information handling systems are used to locate and retrieve media content from content providers in an on-demand fashion. Content providers can include satellite television providers, cable television providers, Internet-based providers and/or other content providers that have content available for download through one or more network connections. Current content-on-demand (COD) retrieval and delivery systems for providing on-demand media content to a user are known. However, with current systems, a user's search for on-demand content centers on the content-provider and, therefore, is not user-centric. As such, these systems are inefficient and non-desirable from a user's perspective thereby limiting the likelihood a user will take advantage of COD offerings.
Some online content providers allow users to search for content available in the content libraries for the particular content provider. As such, if content meeting a user's search terms is not part of a current provider's content library, the user is unable to identify or retrieve that content. Examples of such content providers are cable television and satellite television subscription services. Typically, the only Video-On-Demand (VOD) options available for consumers on the television (TV) are these cable or satellite subscriptions. However, to use these VOD services, a user must first rent the settop receivers associated with the particular provider, and the user is then limited to the content databases provided specifically by the user's cable or satellite provider. Time, Cox, Brighthouse, Comcast, and Cablevision are example cable TV providers that limit the VOD or COD content to just their offerings. Similarly, AT&T Satellite is an example satellite provider that limits the VOD or COD content to its offerings.
Other content providers that allow access to multiple content providers nevertheless force consumers to select a content provider before starting a search for content. In this case, the provider may not have the content desired by the user, resulting in wasted time for the search with that provider, and no delivery of the desired content. An example of such a content provider is the Online Spotlight feature available using the Microsoft Media Center operating system. Using this feature, consumers first pick a content provider before then starting their search for content. This process is inefficient because the content desired by the user may not be available with the content provider that the user picked from the Online Spotlight main menu.
Another method of accessing media on-demand content involves downloading content to a user's personal computer (PC) and/or laptop computer, for example, through the Internet. Through this manual process, a user accesses the Internet through a computer, selects a website for a content provider, conducts a search on that specific website, and then orders from that specific website. Once the content is ordered and paid for, the user can then download the content to the computer for replay. Unfortunately, using a typical computer interface, a user is within approximately two feet of the monitor for the computer. This two-foot interface is not optimal for watching content in a living room or other large room.
For some systems, a television can be used as a display device for a computer system. In particular, the television can be used as the output device for a computerized system that is made for viewing Internet content through a television. An example of such a system is the MSN TV Internet Media Player. Connecting the output of this device to a television, the user can use the television as the display device for navigating the Internet and accessing websites.